Petrie Roundabout Upgrade

On the 4th of June 2018, MP for Kurwongbah, Shane King, announced the funding had been secured for the Petrie roundabout upgrade.

It’s not quite a roundabout upgrade. It’s an intersection upgrade, as once it’s finished, the roundabout will no longer exist, and we will end up with an intersection similar to the new Rothwell intersection.

At this stage, only the concept plans have been released. The intersection will likely reflect these plans, however positioning will possibly change based on what the surveyors come back with during final planning.

The full concept plan

We’ve broken the concept PDF up into bite size chunks, highlighting areas of interest and what the current concept design means for properties surrounding the current roundabout.

Petrie School of Arts

Petrie School of Arts land resumption

Starting with the section of road fronting the Petrie School of Arts, we can see that the new road encroaches on the existing footpath and possibly the edge of the garden with the heritage protected palm trees. So some land will need to be resumed from the School of Arts, and the park beside it. It will also mean the statue and windmill will need to be relocated closer to the School of Arts building.

We can also see that there will be provision for a bus stop, which will remove one of the afternoon congestion problems right at the start of Anzac Avenue, which occurs when a bus pulls up at the stop just before the corner of Young Street.

Eastern Side and North Pine Motors

Shops on Eastern side and North Pine Motors

Moving on. With the current design and positioning, it’s likely that the buildings on the Eastern side of the existing roundabout would likely be fully resumed. These shops are currently only partially occupied, with the Central Petrie Vet, a solicitors office, a barber shop, and other tenancies.

The Central Petrie Vet has been located on the corner of Anzac Avenue and Whites Road for over 35yrs.

A portion of North Pine Motors on the corner of Gympie Road and Mill Street would also be resumed. Likely a portion from the front display yard, but not affecting any structures.

Southwestern Side

Retail and Office Space on Southwestern side of roundabout

Swinging around to the Southwestern side of the existing roundabout is the 3 storey retail and office space structure and beside it the adult shop, and following around the corner into River Street with the older retail shop fronts. None of these shops should be greatly affected, with the biggest thing being they will lose the small amount of parking they have out the front, which will be replaced by the slip lane taking traffic from Gympie Road, West to Dayboro Road.

Northwest Side

Dentist and other retail outlets on Northwest side of roundabout

Moving back to the Northwest side of the roundabout is the old bank, now a Dentist and the retail shops beside it. These shops have a small amount of street parking out the front, which will be removed to be replaced with another slip lane, as well as protected driveway access to parking, at the rear those shops.

Overall, the new intersection will improve traffic flow significantly, it also provides greater safety for pedestrians as well as cyclists. Providing easy access to the shops on all sides of the intersection.

It is hoped that this intersection upgrade can be finished to coincide with the completed construction of the first stage of the USC university campus in The Mill precinct.

While it’s not a complete solution to the traffic problems for this intersection of 3 major roads, it will improve traffic flow considerably making the morning and afternoon commutes for drives quicker.

To make it a long term solution it will require the West Petrie Bypass to be put back on the table, as well as the East Petrie Bypass. The idea being, that both of these combined would remove a significant amount of traffic from having to travel Petrie, allowing it to become more of a student/public transport precinct. The preliminary planning for the East Petrie bypass is expected to be completed later this year, at which point concept plans for the bypass should be released.

UPDATE: Transport and Main Roads have released their “preferred design”, we have covered it in this article. They are also wanting your feedback.